Off the Map
by Zithpith
Summary: When an outcast, a misfit and thief set out to find a distant treasure they fall into a path that will lead to salvation or destruction for their land. It is a search for a fallen star, a journey for redemption, a story of wanderlust and greed, buried cities and forgotten empires. Of adventure, humor, mystery and an annoying narrator. Rated K might change later.
1. A Knight has Needs

**Hey just wanted to write a short series on minecraft, and I haven't tried my hand at writing humor before. And yea the summery is kind of bland but I'm not very good at those things.**

**Parts are based on things that happened to me in minecraft, others not so much. **

**If this does insult your taste in humor, please refrain from pelting the narrator with eggs.**

**+ I completely forgot to add but I might as well add it here. I'll be updating every other day during weekends, and double that time during weekdays.**

* * *

Day 1

Pith steps over the threshold into the new biome and shakes as the snow falls on him, wrapping his arms around himself as the cold settles in. The pine trees above him creek in the wind as if whispering about the new arrival.

'Of course I start in a snowy biome, couldn't I just get a nice warm one like last time?'

He walks past the trees towards what looks like open lands and as he crashes through the branches he stops in his tracks.

His vision opens up to a vast plain coated a solid white as far as the eye can see, while here and there flowers and trees pop up to break up the snow. As the snow begins to fall everything grows quiet and still save for the snowflakes drifting slowly to the ground. He spots two cave entrances close by, each shallow but gleaming with coal.

'Well, maybe I could get used to this place,' he thinks to himself.

He looks up and notices the sun is already at the midpoint, and he runs back into the forest to get his shelter ready.

Day 2

As the sun rises Pith walks outside and admires his new home. Ok so the half snow, half pinewood shack was built in a bit of a panic, but it's not bad for a first house, and the snow keeps the inside warm. What more could a knight want? Besides horses, armor, retainers to do the grunt work… but besides that the place is perfect.

Admittedly at first the thought of moving out of the warm woods and fields into the tundra seemed a bad idea, but the unbroken blanket of white was starting to look nice now. He stops to measure out a low hill for the foundations for his home but he doesn't hear the snow churning behind him. Not until the creeper's warning makes his body stiffen,

"Tissssk"

Pith jumps forward on instinct, and just barely clears the explosion that sends snow and dirt flying around him. With the world spinning he stands up and makes sure nothings broken.

"That was close but looks like you failed sir cree-,"

Sir Pith stops in his tracks, the place where the creeper exploded left a hole in the ground, a hideous, malformed scar on the landscape.

He runs back into his cottage and returns with stacks of dirt. He jumps into the pit and lays down the dirt to fill it in.

'Got to fix it, got to fix it,' is all that goes through his mind.

He doesn't notice the second creeper until it pokes it's head over the rim of the hole and jumps down.

"Tisssk"

He looks up and meets the creeper face to face, and runs away clambering up the side of the pit. The explosion hurls him clear of the pit.

Pith picks himself up and checks himself over.

"Right still got half my hearts left," he says to no one.

He turns to survey the damage, and after he starts placing down blocks he stops. Two dirt blocks and five blocks short of refilling the pit.

"Why… just why can't we have even lawns,"

Day 2

Pith grunts as he pushes against the door to his shack shoving the snow aside. A snowdrift slides from the roof and into the back of his shirt.

"Damn it that's cold!" he yells and runs into the open to shake his shirt out.

He hears footsteps crunch the snow, and draws a stone sword, looking around in a panic.

A sheep munches on grass beneath the snow a few blocks away from him, and he lets out a sigh of relief. After surviving those two creepers yesterday the last thing he needs is another surprise explosion. He stops by the foundations of his hall, at the moment just a cleared field of dirt and a cobblestone foundation, and a chest and workbench. He sorts out his gear and pulls out his stone pickaxe. He walks around his house and finds the cave runs close to the base of the house, it wouldn't be surprising if there is a cave system further down.

The path splits in two and he takes the the left. Inside he finds the path leads back outside in a shallow valley. He turns back and goes down the second path, and finds a honeycombed cavern. A path leads down to tunnel that cuts the room in half though he can see another tunnel across the gap that leads north. He digs his way into the wall and sees iron glittering in the wall. His eyes light up as he clambers towards the iron, and takes a quick look around before forging a stone axe and collecting the iron. He jumps in joy when he hears the click clack of bones. A white shape appears in the darkness, and Pith turns to run, when an arrow finds his back and sends him falling into the lower tunnel. He runs into the darkness, blocking the way with cobblestone as he looks through his inventory for food. He pulls out an uncooked bacon and realizes he needs coal to cook it. As he chews on the uncooked pork he notices light pouring out from the far end of the cave. The cave spirals downwards in a massive winding hallway, and at the bottom it splits into dozens of smaller caves, many of them blocked off by lava.

"Oh yesss I could use you," he says while eyeing the lava.

Apparently the monsters didn't want him to touch their lava, and the sounds of zombies and spiders come from deeper down the cavern. He quickly mines out the veins of coal he can find and doubles back the way he came. The skeleton is gone for the moment, but when he looks back towards the way the skeleton came he notices cobblestone of all things. He crafts a dozen torches and lights the way towards the cobblestone. In the light the stone turns green and grey, and the sounds of zombies moaning echo from a dark crevice in the cobblestone. It would be great to say that he prepares for the danger bravely as one would expect of a knight. It would be great, but sadly we are speaking of a coward and Pith promptly runs for the cave exit. However the clanking of bones coming from the exit keeps him from running away, and stuck between zombies and skeletons it doesn't take long to decide which to fight.

He, finally, readies his sword and three zombies surge through the opening.

He dodges one swipe and hacks it in two, but the other two hit him backwards. He manages to kill them after a few seconds of panicked flailing, but as more zombies come through he steps backward, backing up into a corner, when he looks up.

The stone above holds back a huge pile of gravel, and even one above the dungeon's entrance. He breaks the rock and a slide of gravel buries the leading zombie and blocks the others from coming out. He knocks one block of the dungeon off and kills the zombies from the safety of his murder hole. With the zombies moaning their last he breaks his way inside and finds two chests.

"Alright let's see what you've got,"

Day 4

Pith curses to himself as he trudges through the snow, waving the bone around and listening for the sound of howls or the screams of sheep. It had been a productive day down in the mines, harrowing and full of exploding green men and arrows but he did pull a ton of iron, red stone and a saddle from the trip.

But after getting filled with enough arrows to be three arrows short of a stack he started to miss the help of his first wolf. So here he is, searching the snow-laden forests for companions.

"That is kind of sad,"

He comes to a frozen brook and stops for a second to catch his breath, ignoring the cows mooing at him to move on. As he broke the ice and started considering making an outpost here, he hears the bay of a horse. He pokes through the tree line on the opposite side of the river, and comes across a wide green field under a bright sun, not at all colder for the tundra neighboring it. Not six blocks from him graze a trio of majestic white horses.

Now this is what a knight needs, thought Pith to himself.

He runs to the horse and leaps on its back and yells, just long enough for the horse to throw him off. Now being that he had been trudging through snow all day Sir Pith wasn't about to let that discourage him and he leapt on the horse again, and was driven straight into a nearby tree.

After fighting the horse for the better part of the day, the horse finally tired, long enough so that

Sir Pith pulls the animal over to the frozen stream, and looks him over.

"Alright you stupid beast, you put up a good fight but in the end none can resist Sir Pith! Now where did I leave that saddle?"

He opens up his bag and reaches in, when his smile drops.

"No, no, no, no. Come on I couldn't have left it,"

He empties out the bag's contents onto the ice, and all it spits out is a pile of wood, a half dozen coal and sticks, a bow without arrows, and a slice of cooked beef.

"H-how did I- how could I-?" he babbles to himself too angry to finish any words.

"Just stay here alright horsey," he sets down a fence post and lashes the horse to it before setting off into the woods.

The sun was already dipping low over the horizon, and Pith had to doge more than a few zombies to reach his home.

The second attempt starts bright and early, as Sir Pith, in all his intelligence, decided that he could shave off time from the expedition by heading round the mountains that flanked the forests and cut straight to the plains.

He walks for five minutes before he realized he was hopelessly lost. He looks back the way he came and considers going back to try the path through the woods, for a minute. He's a knight for Notch's sake, he doesn't need to fear getting lost. He cuts out over the mountains to find the forest and his path again. As he comes to the first rise and looks over it… he sees another mountain. He runs over the next rise and sees another mountain and another. How could he have gotten so far- no, no time for that. He's a knight after all, he can find his way without trouble.

He turns left hoping that he can find those encircling pine trees. Nope, a giant tundra is laid out infront of him.

"Is this even possible! How the hell doses that even work?"

He looks up to check the time, and the sun is already hanging low in the sky, and getting lower by the minute.

"Right just retrace my steps, get my bearings, and I'll find my way back the next day, yea that sounds gooooood,"

While Pith was talking he didn't notice the sudden drop off in front of him, and he slid down the mountain side and banged his head on the way down. He stood up and wobbled back and forth as he tried to get his bearings. At the base of the hill in the distance he can see a tree line on the horizon . He walks towards the trees, and as he walks amid them could swear they are almost welcoming him.

As the night falls he is still crashing through bumbles and branches, trying to find that frozen lake next to a warm field. In the distance the cows moo long into the night, and the forest almost seemed to warn him not to go on.

_Hide first, wait for day. There is no hurry._

"Quiet trees I know what I'm doing,"

In reality he had no idea what he was doing. Considering he's talking to trees that is not all that surprising.

The forest grows hushed as if it holds its breath, though the occasional branches snap in the wind as if warning him of the approaching danger and the sounds of mooing fills the forest as he walks.

"Just shut up already, and will those cows never stop mooing…,"

Pith stops mid sentence, and runs towards the source of the mooing. He comes to a frozen river and just across it, there it is. The field looks more or less the same, the two other white steeds are still there, and in the distance he spots another small herd of horses. Hiding next to the river he can see his horse.

"Alright boy… I hope you're a boy, just give me a second to strap this on,"

The horse neighs in annoyance as Pith ties the saddle, and as Pith finishes the horse neighs again and louder.

"Quiet horse, or else the monsters will hear us,"

That's when he notices a skeleton in the corner of his vision, and he jumps on the horse without warning.

"Get going, move it, run already!" he yells.

An arrow whizzed by and strikes the horse in the rear and it takes off into the forest. As Pith found out riding a horse in a thick forest, in the dark, while dogging creepers and skeletons is not the easiest thing in the world. From the right a creeper jumps out from the trees and the two jump away as it explodes.

Pith looks back forlornly at the pit the creeper has dug out, and pulls on the reigns for the horse to stop. The horse snorts angrily and tries to keep running but finds the reigns pulling him back.

"Sorry this'll only take a moment,"

The horse pulls harder, and the reigns are ripped from Pith's hands.

"No, it has to be fixed, it has to be fixed,"

Pith yells at the horse, as the two ride into the night.

"So what should I call you?"

The horse neighs and Pith nods as if he can understand him.

"Well I should, for all the trouble you cost me I can at least pick what to call you. Hm it shouldn't be anything too stupid, and something that fits. Well you are fast, really fast… oh I know, I'll name you after Sir Valen,"

The horse neighs again, looking over its shoulder as Pith babbles on.

"Right Sir Valen, his sword was the fastest in the land, he was famous for it. Though it is abit dignified for you,"

The horse neighs in annoyance.

"Fine, fine. How about..."

Pith looks around the forest and watches as it starts to snow again, and in the distance he can hear a piano start playing.

"Hey I think that's the Beginning playing," Pith says and his head snaps down to look at the horse. "How about Snow Drift?"

The horse neighs again, but sounding less annoyed this time.

"I guess Snow Drift it is. Well looks like we've got a little ways to go. Hey did I ever tell you about Sir...,"

The horse keeps silent as Pith keeps on talking. After a minute Pith stops talking and leans forward in the saddle to see something far off between the trees.

As the sun peaks between the trees its light illuminates the cobblestone foundations and snow and wood shack of his home. He shouts and prods the horse into gallop.

As they draw closer Pith jumps off and jumps up and down for joy.

"We did it! I can't believe we made it! Oh I think this's the beginning of a beau- hey hold still," Pith reigns in the horse and ties him a wooden post.

"Stay here, I'll get to work on a stables for you, now don't move,"

Pith finishes the stables just as night begins to fall, and he walks behind the building to fetch the horse, when he hears the sound of a giant spider and a horse neighing. He draws his sword and rounds the corner, and sees a spider standing infront of the horse, the two facing each other.

Pith yells and waves his sword around, and the spider runs off into the darkness of the pine forest.

"Hey enough fraternizing with the enemy, time to go to sleep, come on now,"

Pith pulls the horse towards the stables but doesn't notice the horse looking back, nor the glowing red eyes watching him as he returns to his hovel.

* * *

**The next chapter should be up soon, if I can finish it between classes at any rate.**

**Oh and reviews and questions are welcomed, I say as if I had to give you permission.**


	2. A Wolf in Wolfs Cloathing

**You know I think I changed my mind, it's these author notes that I'm bad at, I mean I couldn't think of anything while writing this. So yea what else, I always forget to put things here until after it's out. Oh I edited the last chapter a bit to put in some minor details, like what Pith looks like, giving the horse a name finally... so yea sorry about that.  
**

* * *

"Come on, faster, faster!" Pith yells into Snow Drift's ear.

Snow Drift rides faster, and grunts in annoyance as its ears ring, ignoring the arrows flying by them. The conga line of mobs behind them eventually lose ground, and the moans of zombies and rattle of skeletons slowly drift into the distance.

The two come to a stop at the foot of a mountain that stands in the middle of the snow plains. With a backwards glance Pith drives Snow Drift upward, and at the mountain's peak the two find a cave glowing gently with the light of torches.

"Hey did we pass by here before?"

Snow Drift snorts.

"Well you'd remember if we did,"

Pith sighs and puts his hand to his face.

"Right, I'm arguing with a horse… wait,"

The sounds of zombies moaning reaches their ears, and in a moment a half dozen green bodies start climbing the mountain.

Pith dismounts Snow Drift and leads him into the cave with the zombies nipping on their heels. A few blocks into the cave a single door and a barricade of cobblestone blocks the way further in. Pith knocks on the door furiously, but no reply comes from the other side.

"Right doesn't look like there's anyone home, stand back,"

Pith pushes Snow Drift back and readies himself to smash the door open. His ax smashes into the door, and as Pith readies another swing the door opens and someone walks out. Pith barely manages to divert the ax into the stone wall. And the stranger jumps as the pieces hits his face.

The stranger wears a leather suit painted green, but smoothed to the point it looks like cloth. The suit has a black diamond on his chest and a black x over each of his eye holes which reveal light brown eyes. An image of what looks like a tree is painted between his eyes, with swirling roots that reach to his nose and leafless branches that come together at his forehead. The entire suit is held together by dozens of straps and in a few places stitches where gashes had been torn into the leather. His mask is partially pulled up to make room for a baked potato.

"What's whit all the noise out here?" he says, finishing his meal.

"We need help, there's a line of zombies coming this way,"

The stranger looks past Pith and almost seems like he's smiling at the line of zombies filling the cavern.

"Oh thanks for bringing them here, I needed some more XP,"

The stranger takes a step inside his house and a loud click of a switch being thrown comes out. The sound of pistons working fills the cavern and the smooth stone above him move aside revealing a, wait is that an anvil?

The anvil falls in the middle of the zombies and catches one in the head. Pith jumps back and has to look away.

"What raving madman uses an anvil as a trap?" Pith says as he looks towards the door.

The stranger leaps out and in a whirl of motion the other zombies fall with a groan. The stranger slices a zombie in the chest and it collapses into a puff of smoke and ash, and the remaining zombies turn and run. The XP orbs float to the stranger, who looks at the fleeing zombies and turns away.

"Aren't you going to get the ones who ran away?"

"Well I really only like a fair fight,"

The stranger watches the zombies go, and covers his entrance with a wall of cobblestone. The stranger turns to look at them, and as his eyes goes to Snow Drift he almost squawks.

"Oh horsie!" he says putting his hand on Snow Drift's face as if he hadn't seen him before.

"Hey do you mind if we stay here for the night,"

"Course, come in come in, I'll get the food cooking,"

"Hey why did you use an anvil?" Pith says stepping around the anvil.

"Because it's funny,"

"Great, we're stuck with a nut for the night," Pith whispers to Snow Drift.

"Oh come on, how is an anvil trap not that bad, you should have seen the lava trap," says Whitewolf, apparently what Pith said was loud enough for him to hear.

The stranger waves Pith in, and Snow Drift trots in after the stranger widens the doorway by shattering the framing cobblestone. The inside is a half dirt half cobblestone cave. In the back a hole leads deeper into the underground and at the corner a bed and chest are wedged together.

The stranger walks into the next room and returns with an uncooked slice of pork. When Pith looks back at him the stranger waves for him to eat it.

"So I guess I'll start, I'm Whitewolf 2013, no nicknames please,"

Pith looks down at his meat, and then up at Whitewolf, before eating the porkchop.

"I'm Pith, Sir Pith," either ignoring or not caring about the strange name.

"Oh you're a knight? You don't fight very well for one,"

"I'm a craft knight, architect class," Pith snaps.

"I build forts, homes, those sort of things. I don't usually fight, not without a horse anyways,"

"So you've got land and people to work for you?"

Pith stays silent as he finishes his pork.

"I... may be exaggerating a bit. I… haven't been knighted, yet,"

"So you've got a learner's permit or something?" Whitewolf says as he chuckles to himself.

"Damn it it's not funny,"

Snow Drift neighs along, and Pith shoots him a glance that would have made an enderman look away.

"I think it is. So why are you all the way out here knight wannabe?"

"I don't want to talk about it,"

"Come on, we've got nothing else to do,"

"Just leave me alone,"

But no matter how he argued, Pith couldn't get a word in edgewise.

"Fine fine, I'll tell you if you shut up,"

Whitewolf crosses his legs and sits down in the middle of his dirt and rock cave waiting.

"I... I had to prove myself as being worth the title you see, and I always had grand designs of castles and fortresses and towns built into the faces of cliffs and hanging upside down in arches,"

"Sounds cool,"

"That's all it was in the end, it sounded cool. I could never complete my projects, I would start on one and leave it half finished then jump to another. Eventually the king told me I was making the kingdom ugly with all the half finished castles and he threw me out,"

"So now you're..." Whitewolf spins his hand, urging Pith to finish.

"So now I'm here, on the edge of the wilderness, if I can build a proper town in the middle of the wilderness there's no way in the nether that the king won't give me my knightship,"

"Right, sounds like fun, finished anything yet?"

"I'm almost finished with a hall, a big place for people to get together, with sturdy cobblestone walls and a wooden roof. It's not finished yet,"

"What do you do?" Pith says after a moment of silence.

"Adventuring, wandering from one place to another. Though adventuring 'round here's been hard,"

"Why's that?"

"The wild's been busy lately my naïve little knight, there's bands of greefers, adventurers, and general thieves roaming around, the worst of em is the Smoked Band,"

"What is so bad about them?"

"They're four of them. They work out of a castle in the smoke desert, lording over one of those big nosed villages. Strange thing is that for a band of idiots they sure are well armed, and have some good enchantments and potions to boot,"

"What's got everyone going into the wilderness?"

"You haven't heard?"

"Heard what?"

"There's a treasure out there, it's probably the only reason they're out and about,"

"What kind of treasure?"

"I don't know, the tale that's been going around doesn't say much,"

"A rumor? Your going deep into the wilderness on a rumor?"

"Sort of, some people started whispering about a treasure, a relic from the birth of minecraft. Trek over the frozen plains, through the iron peak mountains, past the shifting desert and over the squid's arm bay, in the fallen kingdom a treasure lays,"

"Nice rhyme, but there's nothing in those ruins, they've been picked clean years ago, and even if there was no one can find the place," Pith says sarcastically.

"Yada yada yada, lots of talking, I'm gonna find out for myself, besides people on the frontier have been talking about a beam of light coming from the opposite side of the bay, coming from the Fallen Kingdom,"

Pith's watches the torches on the walls for a second, then shakes his head and sits back.

"I hope it works out for you,"

"Well I have to get ready for the trip, you know all the essentials, iron, diamond, wood. That's why I've been sticking around here,"

Pith snaps his head up, and yelps.

"We can help each other here,"

"Oh? How's that?"

"I found a cave under my house, it's got all sorts of things that we can use and I need help diving in there. If you help me you can get all the stuff you need quickly and I can get my materials,"

Whitewolf smiles, or Pith guess he smiles its hard to tell underneath the mask, and puts his hand forward.

"I like it, you've got my sword,"

"And you've got mine," Pith says taking the handshake.

Whitewolf looks over to Snow Drift, and chuckles.

"I bet the place's got plenty of gold, and that means golden apples in your future,"

Snow Drift turns to them and neighs in what seems to be excitement.

"Then we've got a dungeon delving party," says Pith.

"Great! I'll pack the food, those monster's never know what hit 'em,"

* * *

**And that's this chapter done, I'm not sure what to think about this one. On one hand I finally get to introduce another of the three leads, it's a bit of a spoiler but not much the last of the trio'll show up next chapter. On the other hand I had originally wanted this chapter to be a bit longer and introduce all of the main characters but... ugh I had to rewrite this chapter three times more or less. Well its done now, next chapter should be easier I hope anyways.**

**-Fixed a few things like Whitewolf's description.**


	3. A Thief in the Day

**Wooh I blitzed this chapter! Right, so with all the main characters introduced its off to the adventure. I'm kind of confused why it took me so long to get to it but hey you live and learn. So right I'll stop delaying you and get on with the show.**

* * *

Day 12

Pith yawns and walks outside, stretching in the sunlight as he quickly glances around.

"Snow Drift?"

The horse trots over to him and Pith removes the lasso and leads the horse to the entrance. Whitewolf comes out wearing his sword at his hip and a large backpack on his back.

"What's all that for?"

"You know the essentials, torches, arrows, flint and iron,"

"Flint?"

"You'd be surprised how often I use that, a spare sword, a bow, pick ax, spare pick ax, and a dozen baked potatoes,"

"How'll you carry anything?"

"I figure that'll be your job," Whitewolf says shoving a bag into Pith's hands.

"Let's get going,"

The two arrive at the hall in a few minutes, and Pith is surprised when Whitewolf keeps up with his horse surprisingly well. He taps the horse as if checking if he has defects, and the horse bites at his hand for his trouble.

The building is a Nordic style hall, with a stepped roof laden with snow. The foundations and lower walls are built of cobble stone, while the upper walls and roof is made of pine wood. Two twin doors stand at the front at the front and a massive hole stands out at the end of the roof where spiders could easily climb in.

To one side a small frozen lake feeds ice water into a small pumpkin field warmed by torches.

"What are the pumpkins for?"

"Security," is all Pith says.

As the two walk past the trio of trees in front of the hall Pith slides off his horse and waves towards the hall.

"Welcome to White Stone Hall," Pith says.

"Nice, but do you usually leave the door open?"

Pith's head snaps forward and indeed of the two sets of double doors one is wide open, and a set of snowy footprints track inside.

"This can't be good," says Pith and he runs through the door, sword in his hand with Whitewolf right behind him.

Inside the hall is fairly wide with thick wooden beams holding up the ceiling that arches above them. The middle of the floor is made of wood save for a hearth at the center where a block of wood burns. Several empty chairs line the walls and at the head of the hall another seat stands on a raised platform. To the left a narrow passage in the wall leads out into a

"Whoever's out there come out! There are two of us and you ca-,"

A figure stands up at the head of the hall, and Pith makes out what looks like a girl wearing a simple white shirt and light blue pants and hiking boots with a backpack in one hand and a stone sword in the other.

"Thief," Pith snarls and points his sword forward.

"Stay back, stay back I don't mean you any harm," says the girl.

Pith hesitates and Whitewolf takes a step forward and bends over to look at her.

"You don't look too good," says Whitewolf.

"Look I just need some food and I'll be out of your way, I just need to heal,"

Pith notices that the hand that holds her side, her clothes stained red. Pith sighs and puts away his sword.

"Why am I helping a thief?" he whispers to himself.

"Hold on a second I'll see what I have in the stores," Pith says and goes down to the cellar.

Whitewolf watches the girl, who nervously fidgets in place and keeps her eyes on the cellar entrance.

"Will you stop watching me," she says.

"Hm? You says something?" Whitewolf says shaking his head as if he were asleep.

Pith returns and hands her a few slices of cooked beef.

"So how did you get like that?"

"Oh oh, let me guess. Zombie right? No they're not that fast, um skeleton! No you'd have an arrow,"

"It was some bandits," she says, more than a little annoyed.

"Damn it, that was my next guess,"

"You don't say,"

"Yea, they almost got me, just over a hill past that forest to the north, they've been chasing me for a while but I finally managed to give them the slip."

"You didn't do that good a job at that," says Whitewolf.

"Thanks," she says sarcastically.

She eats the beef in a minute, and the wound starts to close.

"The name's Jett by the way, though my friends call me Raven. Thanks for helping me,"

"Isn't that a guy's na- ow," Whitewolf tries to say when he's interrupted by Raven punching him in the shoulder.

"Not a problem, you can stay here for a while, though we still need to go into the caves," says Pith.

"Caves?"

"Yea we're going spelunking to get ready for the trip,"

"Not we I'm staying here. But now that you mention it I did think of a way you can pay me back for the food,"

"Pay you back?"

Pith pulls out a pick axe from his backpack and tosses it to her.

"Come on, we'll need the extra hand,"

"Uh, wait I'm not a miner,"

"That's alright I don't think this place has drinks," says Pith pushing past her and to the door.

"That's terrible," says Jett.

"If you think that's bad wait till he start telling jokes," says Whitewolf.

Before Pith walks to the cave he runs to the farm and returns with a pumpkin head in his hands. He scoops up the snow and builds a two block tall body with twigs for arms. He places the pumpkin on top and the creature comes to life, looking around and sliding on the snow.

"Alright there friend, just stay here and make sure nothing walks inside, got it?" says Pith.

The snow golem looks at Pith for a moment and then continues sliding on the snow.

"Ugh fine just stay here,"

The thee walk into the cave up to the point where Pith had found the dungeon. The cave honeycombs further in, and every corner holds promises of arrows and pain. For a second each swears they see something moving in the darkness.

"You first, you'll probably want the XP," Pith says and he and Jett take a step back.

"Eh, sure," Whitewolf says and walks forward.

No monsters jump at them from the shadows. No arrows, explosions or even slimes bar their way as they tread deeper and deeper into the caverns.

As the air becomes to get stale and warmer. The cavern opens up to a large room filled with lava. Along the walls veins of iron, red stone, coal and lapis lazui glimmer at them. Above the lava lake another tunnel forms a balcony overlooking the lake and the entrance they came from.

"Let me handle this," Pith says.

He leaves his bag next to the entrance and starts mining around the lava and covering its edges with cobblestone.

As Pith works at the lava Whitewolf spots something shinning in the corner of the room. A vein of diamond calls to him from the opposite side of the lava lake. He unslings his pick axe and walks to the edge of the lake. He lays down a couple of cobblestone over the lava, and starts building a bridge when he hears something scuffling in the dark. It takes him a moment to realize someone's missing.

"Hey Jett where'd you go?"

Pith emerges from his trench covered in sweat and sulfur, and looks around for their guest. His eyes goes to where he had left his bag and sees its missing.

"Damn it she ran off with our materials!" he says and runs down the way they came.

"Hey slow down Pith," Whitewolf says and hefts his own bag.

The two run up the myriad of rooms and Whitewolf manages to outpace Pith even with his heavy load. As they draw closer to the surface Whitewolf notices a figure in the shadows.

"Hey Jett what are you doing? Rav- agh!"

An arrow flies into Whitewolf's chest, and in the darkness someone barks an order. Another figures walk into the torch light. Revealing a man with a short black beard and wearing leather armor and sporting an iron sword that glimmers in the dark, and a woman .

"So which of you idiots is going to talk?"

Pith helps Whitewolf up and draws his sword.

"Humph, fine they aren't the ones with the map, get 'em,"

The figure draws back its bow, and takes aim but doesn't hear the footsteps coming behind her. With a loud thwack another figure hits the archer over the head. When the swordsman turns an arrow finds his shoulder

Pith spots Jett standing over the archer, with a bow in her hands.

The archer stands up, and draws a sword to run Raven through but Pith drops his bag and loses an arrow that skits past her. Instead of staying to fight she makes a run for the door, as dose her companion pulling out the arrow and leaving it behind.

"And don't come back!" Raven yells after them.

She jumps down from her perch and throws Pith's bag at him.

"Thanks for the distraction," she says.

"Thanks for running off with my bag," Pith says opening his bag and checking to make sure nothing was broken.

"Your welcome,"

"Hey do you smell smoke? Or is that just me again?" Whitewolf says.

The three head back up to the surface, and the crackling of wood burning gets louder and louder. Pith runs ahead of the other two, and when he comes to the surface his jaw drops. His hall burns, sending smoke and ash high into the sky. A trio of figures are running into the distance, and he hears a laugh echo back to him.

A hand falls on his shoulder and Pith looks back to see Whitewolf standing there.

"Hey don't worry it's not that bad, I mean you can rebuild it. I bet you that it'll be mostly intact,"

Pith looks at his hall and already most of the roof is gone.

"Mostly. Awe dose someone need a hug?"

"Maybe later," Pith says without sarcasm.

He looks around and to his surprise sees Snow Drift ridding towards them in a hurry.

"See, you haven't lost that much,"

"Well what do I do now? Those idiots will be back when they realize that I'm alone, and there's no way I'm going back,"

"You can come with me, find the treasure in the Fallen Kingdom. We'll make a road trip out of it!"

"Yea, sure, road trip for a mystical treasure with no way of knowing how to get there,"

Jett sighs and walks over to the two, and pulls out a piece of paper from her pack.

"What is this?" asks Pith.

"Well I guess I do still want to pay you back for helping me, and if you're going after the same treasure I'm after…"

Pith looks at the paper, and realized what he's holding is a map.

"There's a reason they were after me," she says cheekily.

"Well there we go, come on you've got no reason to say no now,"

Pith takes another look at his hall, and shrugs his shoulders.

"You know what? Let's do it,"

And with that our band of outcasts and rouges have finally found an adventure far out in the wilderness.

"Did you guys hear that?" asks Whitewolf.

"Look I swear I don't talk to trees or anything like that," says Pith.

Yes, quite the band of heroes.

"What have I agreed to," Jett sighs to herself.

* * *

**And with that the main cast is together and the adventure begins. I had run into a real block trying to figure out how to introduce the last part of the trine but after that was sorted out the rest flowed like butter. Great now I'm hungry. So I'll try to get the next chapter out before the weekend's done and school eats up my time. Till then.**


	4. Maps and Swords

***This* close. I was *this* close to finishing a chapter in a day. Ah well next time. So this chapter was pretty good to write, and hopefully just as good to read. Anything else to add... hm. Oh I will be busy for the next couple of days, so chances are the next chapter won't be up until next weekend or so. If I do get the chance to write the next one then, well I guess you'll get an early chapter.**

* * *

The three, four if you count the horse, trudge through the snow towards the forests north of Pith's hall. The thought of running into more of the bandits wasn't terribly pleasant. They left in such a hurry that they didn't even bring much food with them.

Pith walks at the head leading Snow Drift who has three bags strapped to his back. Behind him Whitewolf and Raven take the rear watching for signs of pursuit. The trees slowed them down somewhat, but they figured that they would be useful for hiding them from anyone who might be chasing them.

As they got past the outer skirts of the forest Raven stops and snaps at Pith and Whitewolf to stop. The two look back at her who puts her finger to her mouth. Then they hear what she did, the sound of something sliding or grinding on the snow, and coming straight at them. Raven pulls out her bow and notches an arrow, and both Pith and Whitewolf draw their swords in readiness. The sound grows louder and louder, and a white form bursts from the trees. Pith drops his sword and cries out in surprise.

Standing there is the snow golem he had made the day before. The golem looks at the three and then slides to Pith, enveloping him in freezing snow.

"Hey, t-t-tha- good to see you," Pith says pushing the snow golem off.

The snow golem spins and jumps in excitement as if he were a wolf, and Pith pats his head. Raven keeps her distance from it, but says nothing. Whitewolf walks to the golem and waves. The golem looks at him for a second before pelting him with a snowball.

"I thought you would have been killed in the fire, let me guess you where nowhere around,"

The snow golem slides around almost as acknowledgment and Pith sighs.

"Well I guess it was for the better, you'd be a goner by now if you did. Come on we're going,"

"Great we're bringing golems with us now," Raven mutters under her breath.

Pith points for the snow golem to take the lead and the group starts walking again. As night starts to draw on them the trio stop at a shallow cave and barricade the passage leading down. Raven stands at the entrance while Whitewolf starts crafting a furnace to start cooking. Pith starts sorting out their items and glances at Raven.

"I never asked you, where are you from?" Pith asks Raven.

"The Shallow Valley, it's a small village in Oak Dale," Raven says.

Pith sighs.

"I should have figured,"

"And I guess you're from Sea Stone?" Jett asks pointing to the blue triangles on Pith's wrists.

"That's right,"

"So what you don't trust me now?"

The golem, who has been sliding in between them stops and looks from Pith to Raven and back.

"I already didn't trust you, but I do owe you. Well not so much owe but I know what I'm saying," Pith says drifting off to mumbling to himself.

The golem stays looking at Pith and rotates his head to one side.

"People from those places don't trust each other much," Pith explains.

"Can that golem even be curious?" asks Raven.

Now it's Pith's turn to be confused as he watches the snow golem. Sure they seemed to be able to understand commands, even if some of the softer headed types didn't follow them.

"I honestly have no idea,"

Whitewolf plunks himself down in the middle of the room and snatches the map from Pith's hands.

"Well I'm a natural born and raised nomad, never needed walls or neighbors to keep me safe," Whitewolf says ignoring his companion's arguments as he examines the map.

"Hey I want to read the map," says Pith pulling the map away.

Raven takes her seat opposite to Whitewolf and Pith spreads out the map, lighting a torch to illuminate it.

The map is old and yellowed with age, but as a testament to the map maker it is still fairly readable. At the top of the map the words "East Sea" are written in flowing beautiful letters, and the entire map is surrounded in flowing waves though in the top left part the map has broken and faded. The easternmost map is taken up by the Sea, which is only broken by the occasional islands.

Along the sea a wide stretch of land is labeled _Sea Stone,_ which streaches from high hills and cliffs in the north to deep swamps in the south. South East of Sea Stone is a large stretch of woodlands, hills and plains that bear _Oak Dale_ over the land. In the center of the map the words _Sun Vale _is written over the landscape, and at the center of the kingdom lies a city built into a valley deep in the mountains. Several other land marks are written on the map, the Obsidian Ruins in the far north of East Sea, several small villages and on the north western edge a barely readable arrow points to "Land's Core". On the border between Sea Stone and Sun Vale a long strip of white is marked out, and Pith points at the snow covered land.

"I think we're here, and we've got a while to go,"

Pith trails his finger northward, passing over the Iron Mountains, Shifting Sands and over a narrow bay that spills from the Sea to form Squid's Arm Bay. Across the bay a wide open plain leads to the foothills of the mountain range that holds the ruined city.

"Where did you get this?" asks Pith.

"I got it from those bandits, why'd you think they're after me?"

"No I mean, ugh ok where did they get this? This looks like it was drawn back when the Sun Vale Kingdom was still around. I don't think anyone has made any maps of the wilderne- so that's why this thing is so important," Pith says, saying the last part to himself.

"I don't know, I guess from some ruins in the wilderness, does it matter?"

"Does it matter?! This is a massive historical find, it's almost scary how intact this is, it must have been in a desert or some- oh wait it's gonna get ruined, quick smelt some glass! Smelt some glass!"

"We don't have any sand, don't worry it'll hold till we find some," says Raven.

"No it won't 'hold' till we find some, I need to find a place to put it,"

Whitewolf stands up and walks outside to stretch his legs, leaving his companions to bicker.

-()-

"You sure they came this way?" the man in leather armor says while observing the surrounding hills.

"Yea, there's no way they could have gotten away without us seeing them unless they came into the woods," says the woman next to him.

The two are hiding behind a pair of spruce trees, sword and bow in hand. The man pulls off his leather cap revealing short cut black hair in sharp contrast with his beard. The woman has short cut brown hair and is wearing a tight black shirt and pants.

"You think those two where with the thief from the start?" asks the archer.

"Does it matter? They've got the map anyway, and the boss's gonna be-,"

"Absolutely livid," comes a voice from behind them.

From the forest a black and white spotted horse comes through carrying a man, or rather boy, on its back. The boy wears a simple black tunic and pants. A symbol of a pine tree split in half is sewed onto his shirt. They stop a few feet from the two and the horse looks around knowingly.

"So explain to me how a thief got past both you guys?"

"She had help, some squire and a weirdo in a leather suit, they got the drop on us,"

"Well 'aint that perfect. Now there could be a dozen places where they could be hidding. We play this smart, Hand you go search the closest caves," he says pointing to the man in leather armor.

"Not a problem,"

"Hearth, you climb that tree and keep an eye on Hand, I'll will search ahead in case they tried to make a run for the Iron Mountains, and keep your wits we need to find the map before the Smoked Band finds out about this,"

-()-

Raven steps outside to stretch her legs, caves where never her favored place to be even if this land is far colder than what she's used to. She notices Whitewolf standing on an outcrop of exposed rock and walks over to him.

"Hey what's going on?"

"I think your friends are coming," Whitewolf says pointing at something in the distance.

A horse rides past them and a man in leather armor approaches them from down hill.

"Do you think they saw us?" says Raven.

Almost as if in answer the man in leather armor shouts something and breaks into a run towards them.

"Damn it they're onto us," says Raven and she yells for Pith to come out.

"Good, it was starting to get boring without a fight," says Whitewolf drawing his sword.

"I really would like to get the guys who tried to run me through, but maybe another time. We've got to go into the caves,"

"But Snow Drift won't fit in here, and we can't mine it quicker than they can run. We've got to find a raven or something big,"

"Guys they're getting closer,"

"You two, make for the mountains, Raven get your bow ready and if they get close climb into a tree," Pith says jumping onto Snow Drift.

The snow golem slides behind them as they make a run for the mountain.

-()-

"Boss! They're here!" Hand yells breaking into a run.

Behind him Hearth notches her bow and takes aim at the one on the horse. She fires and the arrow barely misses its target instead imbedding itself in the horse.

-()-

Snow Drift cries out in pain as the arrow lodges itself in his leg. Pith dismounts and pulls Snow Drift further uphill, where the trees are quickly growing sparser.

"There's a ravine," Raven says pointing to a wide hole in the side of the mountain where they can see a huge pit dip into the earth.

"Come on boy we can make it," Pith says pulling Snow Drift along.

Raven turns to shoot an arrow back at their pursuer, but it's clear he won't make it to them in time. Pith almost yells as they come to the entrance of the ravine, when the horseman cuts his celebration short.

He's more shocked than scared for a moment, the rider is a child, only fifteen or so years old, with dark skin and black hair. Though to be fair that is not too many years before either Pith or Raven, and he's not entirely sure how old Whitewolf is.

His train of thought ends when the rider knocks into him, throwing him and Snow Drift back and splitting the team in two. The rider strikes at Raven, who ducks under the swipe and pulls out her sword.

Whitewolf charges ahead screaming, when an arrow finds his shoulder and makes him fall mid charge.

"Notch damn it! Why the same shoulder," he shouts.

Pith gets up and pulls Snow Drift to his feet, and mounts him. He spots the swordsman and archer coming towards them, and realizes they have to finish this fight quickly. Pith charges the rider, and swings at his head but he ducks and swings back, their swords meet with sparks and they break off to wheel around each other.

The swordsman closes the distance, and raises his sword to behead Whitewolf as he still tries to pull out the arrow. A snowball hits him in the face and Whitewolf rolls out of the way as the snow golem advances pelting the swordsman.

The archer closes the distance and takes her place next to the swordsman. Raven stands next to Whitewolf, and Pith backs up to make a semi-circle with the others.

"Well looks everyone has a dance partner, oh wait poor Snowy doesn't have one," Whitewolf snickers.

"Get them!" the horseman yells.

But before they close for the mêlée they hear a sound no minecrafter wants to hear.

Tssssk.

"Creeper!" someone shouts.

The sound is quickly followed by a spider with dark brown fur leaping from a nearby tree onto the archer. The swordsman turns to help her but is met by a zombie wearing chainmail.

In the middle of the commotion a creeper hisses and flashes white. Of all beings there Snow Drift pushes the party into the ravine, just as an explosion sends dirt, stone and wood flying, and sending them falling into darkness.

* * *

**And the chapter ends, I was going to have a fairly long outtro paragraph but it slipped my mind when I actually finished it. Though I should warn you dear readers that I've been considering changing the name since it's been bugging me ever since the second ch. And know that I am definitely going to redo the summery, since it's been a placeholder anyway. Right till next time.**


	5. The Way Down

**Right this has been a stressful week, and strangely enough not because of school work. I must have a bipolar writing disorder or a very weird case of OCD because since I stopped writing I've been giving my blood pressure hell thinking about a hundred things I should have done different in the last chapters. It's gotten so bad I'm on the fence on whether or not to start over, since all the 'fixes' are mostly for the first three chapters. Since I'm not entirely certain I'm still sane I'll give this a bit more thought, that and I need to lie down a moment. Till then enjoy the show.**

**-Please ignore the momentary loss of sanity, the author regrets that he had forgotten to take his happy pills and will be back shortly.**

* * *

It's dark. But not cave dark. Cave dark's different from the darkness of being asleep you see.

A memory fills the darkness. Whitewolf is sitting in an open desert, nothing but sand and sun for miles around. In the distance he can hear someone humming, the sound of horses neighing and pigs oinking come from behind him. But his favorite part comes next. Someone sings in the distance, more like a low quiet hum broken by the occasional lyric.

"Praise the sun it has returned,

Praise the sun the mobs have burned,

Till the time the night ends,

Wait for the sun's ra-,"

The voice drifts off, and the darkness returns, but the memory doesn't end.

"Is everything ready?" a voice asks.

"Yes, I don't think they can get in," a second voice says, more nervous than the first.

"Good, we can get started,"

Whitewolf stretches out his hand, but feels nothing. He tries to sit up, but nothing moves.

"Hold still dear, you need to hold still," the second voice says soothingly.

"Peace child, it's alright. You'll be alright. When you wake, you'll be ready for the Great Builder's Light,"

Wake up.

-()-

'There's a lot of water here,' Whitewolf thinks to himself.

The sound of water rushing past him slowly brings him back to his senses.

'I think I need to pee now,'

He opens his eyes, and there's little more to be seen. He can see a light far above where he figures they fell from. The sound of battle still resounds above, and human voices grow more distant as the fight draws on. Eventually the sounds of fighting cease completely, and only the sound of the waterfall remains.

Whitewolf sits up, his bones snap back into place as they heal. He stands up and feels around himself. He hears Snow Drift neigh close by, Pith and Jett groan closer still. His hand comes onto his flint and iron, and he strikes it to give some light.

In the light he sees their items sloshing along the water current at the bottom of the ravine. Pith and Raven lie on opposite ends of the water flow, dazed but in one piece. Whitewolf looks to where he landed and sees a stone slowly reforming a spiderweb of cracks. Snow Drift neighs again as the fire fades, and Whitewolf snatches a bundle of torches from the water and plonks one down on the wall. The light reveals Snow Drift struggling to get up in the current, weighed down by his half filled packs.

Pith walks towards Whitewolf, looking pretty miserable.

"Awake yet bro?"

After a moment he notices that Pith is shivering, at first he assumes that its because of the water but as the water slides off of him in sheets he still trembles.

Pith notices Whitewolf watching him and walks past him to check on Snow Drift.

"Well nothing's broken," Pith says after checking Snow Drift over.

"Thanks for worrying, I really am," Whitewolf says.

Raven stirs and joins the two, shaking the water from her hair.

"Hey wait where's the golem?" asks Raven.

"Snowy?"

"He must have run off when the creeper went off," Pith says looking up to the top of the ravine, not wanting to think of the more likely case.

Their stomachs give a collective groan and Whitewolf walks over to the fallen packs.

"Anyone hungry?" he says pulling out several cooked pork chops.

"I'll take them," Pith says grabbing half a dozen and cramming them down. "What have we got?"

Whitewolf rummages through the packs, throwing things out of it.

"Looks like some torches, cobblestone, an iron bar, wood, sticks, a dozen pork chops, some coal, two iron picks, a dozen arrows, and a slice of bread,"

"Well that's not too bad,"

"We should keep moving, either those mobs or those bandits will be out there," Raven says watching the opening.

"Like they'll want to come down here, so which way?" says Pith.

Whitewolf climbs up a spur of rock and look up and down the ravine. The way north is blocked by lava falls, and southward the caves are filled with slow flowing water and obsidian.

"Let's go north, we just have to watch out for the lava," says Whitewolf climbing back down.

"Ok no, that's just asking for Herobrine or some creeper to get us. We should find a cave system that leads up, once we're on the ravine walls we can just mine ourselves a pathway,"

"Well I do need the lava but I don't want to get killed either, I guess I'll just-hey wait where'd Whitewolf go?"

Pith turns around and spots Whitewolf crossing the lava via a narrow bridge of cobblestone. The two run behind him, yelling for him to turn back all the way. After it becomes clear Whitewolf won't listen to them Pith widens the bridge with cobble stone and carefully leads Snow Drift behind them.

"How did that song go?" Whitewolf says out loud.

When no one answers he starts humming something, and starts singing.

"-The'll be no more crying when he starts singing his old...," he trails off, mumbling to himself.

"Sweet song," Raven continues.

"Right, then it goes, get up get up the sun is red," Whitewolf continues.

"Get up get up the mobs are dead," Pith sings next.

"Live love, laugh and be happy," They all finish laughing and making Snow Drift nervous.

"How do you know an old Sea Stone song?" Pith says.

"Sea Stone? My mother would wake me up every morning with that song, I started to hate it after a while,"

"I heard it too, and I'm pure blooded nomad," Whitewolf says.

"Huh, that's weird, must be an old song," Pith says.

Pith looks to his right, and sees a cave that leads downwards into the darkness in a rare lava-less spot of land.

"Come on, whatever's in there can't be worse than this," Pith says jumping off.

"Um, let's just keep going, there's got to be a cave that leads up right?"

"That's not what you were saying before,"

"Hey don't worry if you're scared I'll take the lead," Whitewolf says brandishing his sword.

Raven considers pushing him into the lava, but sighs and pushes past him.

"Ladies first," says Raven.

Carrying a torch in one hand and his sword in the other, she leads the way down. Snow Drift snorts and pulls back, refusing to go into the passage. But with no way to go back and nowhere else to go, he follows the three down.

The cave leads further and further down into the underground, and though they hear distant moans and monsters they see nothing on their way down. The cave grows wider and wider too, though it has no branching paths, till they reach the bottom. At the bottom they find an abandoned mineshaft half blocked off by cobwebs. Raven hacks through the webs, slicing the silk into thin slivers but only revealing more webs behind it and light on the other side.

"What in the nether?"

Raven slices the webs into ribbons, and finds herself standing on the edge of a ten block drop.

The three look ahead and see a massive cavern open before them. Above holes in the ceiling let in rays of moon light revealing gigantic stone pillars that reach to the ceiling where it once supported what looks like a tower. Around it dozens of smaller pillars lie on their sides, smashed into a thousand pieces and scattered across the cavern. Along the walls cracked stone bricks once formed buildings which alleyways flooded by stone and dirt, and ancient rusted statues lie on the ground.

They follow a staircase leading downward and walks down towards the ruins.

"This is amazing," Pith says, his voice echoing off the walls.

"What is it?" Raven asks.

"I don't know, their older than any of the three kingdoms,"

"Yea, fascinating, let's do the history tour later. Chances are mobs will be using this place as a lair,"

Pith walks up to a side of the pillar and points out a figure on it.

"Hey what's this?" he says calling the other two over.

Raven brings her torch, illuminating a pictorgraph painted onto the pillars. An image of a giant with wide shoulders and long arms striding over hills and mountains.

"What's that?" asks Raven.

"That? That's a Great Builder, you know the ones who helped Notch build the world," says Whitewolf as if he were asked what the sky is. "They don't teach you that in Oak Dale?"

"What do you want? The picture's faded and I can barely see," she says.

"What's this?" Pith says pointing underneath the pictograph.

Underneath the feet of the giant the ground opens into caves, and in the one directly below the Builder three pairs of white eyes glow in the darkness.

"I don't think we'd like to meet it," Whitewolf says.

Pith's spine tingles, and he walks away to look at the rest of the cave.

"Hey look," Raven says, pointing to a light coming from a cave in the cavern's wall.

Torch light.

"There are people mining out here?" says Pith.

"Not that I've heard," Whitewolf says.

"I'll check it out,"

Pith mounts Snow Drift, much happier to be in an open cavern, and trot to the light. Pith pokes his head inside to see a cave with torches on the left side leading upward.

"Hello? Anyone here?" He calls.

He gives up and starts to turn, when he sees someone standing behind him. He and Snow Drift jump backwards with a shout. The woman laughs and pats Snow Drift's snout to calm him. The woman isn't terribly threatening though. She has dirt covered black hair and yellow eyes, and pale skin that likely rarely sees the sun. She wears a simple white toga that looks like it's been resowed several times.

"Sorry to startle you, it's been a while since I've seen anyone," the woman says smiling at them.

Pith can hear Whitewolf and Raven running towards him, no doubt thinking he had ran into a creeper or something. That's when he notices the enderman standing right behind the woman, half hidden in the shadows. Looking straight at him.

* * *

**A bit of a musical chapter, and there's a bit of a reason to that. Right till next time.**


	6. Like Night and Day

**Hm, this took longer than expected, well I guess that's another win for procrastination.**

** Right so new chapter, new summery (yea I know I already did that before this chapter but shhh), everything looks good. Though I still have to fix a few things in the earlier chapters, I guess they could wait… I'll be right back.**

* * *

Pith draws his sword, and screams a warning. The enderman teleports behind him and knocks the sword from his hand with a single swipe. It grabs onto Pith's arm, and opens its mouth. The cavern fills with its shriek, Pith reaches for his bow and Snow Drift pulls back trying to get free.

"Quiet down already the both of you,"

The enderman closes its mouth, and takes a step back.

"Now why'd you go and do that?" she says.

"What?" is all Pith can say with his heart beating out of his chest.

"Why'd you go and point that sword at him? What are you a sociopath or something?"

Pith stares at her for a minute, dumbfounded. As he sees Whitewolf and Raven reach his side he looks back at the woman and avoids the enderman's eyes.

"I'm… sorry about that,"

"Don't tell me, tell him. Don't worry he won't attack,"

Pith looks at the enderman, and repeats his apology. He braces himself to be torn to pieces the enderman just stands still.

"Alright, now how about we do this right? I'm Lily, and this is Rift,"

The enderman bows so slightly the three barely noticed it moved.

"Um, right I'm Pith, Sir Pith," Pith says putting his hand out.

"He's a squire," says Raven.

"Hey keep quiet, it's a technicality,"

"Heh, nice to meet you," Lily says.

"I'm Jett, but you can call me Raven," says Jett, keeping her sword arm ready.

Wihitewolf on the other hand strides to the two and shakes each of their hands.

"I'm Whitewolf, nice to meet you two,"

"Yea, I guess it is nice to meet an enderman that doesn't try to kill me. So what did you tame it or som-,"

The enderman glares at Pith, who gulps and tries to back pedal fast.

"Um I mean, how'd you come to befriend such a noble creature?"

"That is a long story," Rift says, his voice is scratchy and in the background the faint sound of static can be heard and the three had to force themselves from dropping their jaws in surprise.

"You can talk?" Jett says.

"That he can, so if you want a rest you can stay at our place for a while. I'm sure Ara would like to meet you," says Lily.

"Who's Ara?" asks Pith.

"He's a villager we cured while exploring these caves, a little weird but nice enough,"

"Yea he's weird," Jett whispers to Whitewolf.

"It would be nice to have a bed," says Whitewolf.

"I guess I can't disagree," says Pith, dismounting Snow Drift.

"Oh great! Let's give them a proper tour," Lily says waving them down the tunnel.

The group heads down the tunnel the two had come from, though at some points they had to stop to raise the ceiling to let Snow Drift through.

As they walk Pith and Whitewolf stay ahead while Raven stays in the back, keeping an eye on the enderman also hanging behind.

Raven had never really gotten a chance to see an enderman in detail, even up close in the midst of a battle things were usually too chaotic to notice details. Rift's skin is smooth and looks eerily similar to obsidian. The purple particles that float around it almost look like they are about to take a shape before disappearing back into his body. Though for an enderman Rift isn't very tall, only a half block taller than the minecrafters.

The party comes up to a ravine and the trio stop in their tracks. The ravine glows with the light of hundreds of glow stone and torches built into the walls. Glass bridges cross the Rift and flowing lava pipes up and down the walls through glass pipes, which curve down to the bottom of the ravine.

"Welcome to Home Base,"

"Do you like it?" says Lily.

"It's amazing," Pith says walking up to a lava tube and pressing his hand against it, and jumps back when it burns him.

"Careful its hot," Lily says laughing.

"How'd you do this?" Raven asks.

"We're a good team, he gets me around lava, and I take care of water flows. Oh this place has stories,"

Rift teleports over the ravine, and pushes a button hidden in the rock face. The sound of pistons resounds through the walls and reveal a two block wide doorway. Rift waves them through, and ducks through the opening just before it closes.

Inside the room is flanked by row upon row of chests, to the right a door opens up to a smaller room with a twin bed, and in the back, a narrow passage leads down.

"Hey what's down there?" asks Pith.

"That? It's an abandoned library. That's where we found Ara locked up and zombified,"

"A library?" Pith says his eyes shining.

"Oh great," Whitewolf says.

"Come on let's see it,"

Pith drags Jett and Whitewolf into the next room, finding rows upon rows of dusty bookshelves with cobwebs in the corners.

"Oh look, books and cobwebs, how exiting," says Whitewolf. "I'll be outside."

As Whitewolf steps outside and Jett walks to the back of the library Pith examines a bookshelf and pulls one out exited, when the half torn papers spill from the book. He pulls out another book with the same result, most of the books had long rotted away into dust. Pith sighs and while sorting through the books notices a few in one section that look newer than the others. Before he can pull it out Rift and Lily come through the gap, Lilly carrying a diamond sword and wearing a black four pointed star amulet around her neck.

"Hey is Ara here?" Lily asks.

"No, there's no one in here," Raven says, emerging from the back of the library

"Great, he must've gone into the ruins again, let's go Rift," Lily says and walks towards the back of the library.

"Hey do you need any help?" says Raven.

"Hm, not really, but you should come, oh the ruins are beautiful at this time at night,"

The group walks to the back of the library, where a small opening leads into a darker tunnel lit only by a few torches.

Down the tunnel it leads onto a stone outlook that reaches out into open air. Above a tiny sliver of the sky lets in rays of moon light into the ravine, but despite the light the ravine is so deep their eyes can't discern the bottom and no lava lights its depths.

"This is amazing," Raven says, walking to the edge of the ravine.

"Yea, why don't you guys live here?" asks Pith.

"It's um, it's a little too airy for my tastes," says Lily, and leads them onward.

The outcrop leads to a path carved into the ravine wall, and after walking around the bend the trio sees what ruins they were talking about. Along the ravine walls dozens of abandoned mine shafts, square rooms and other signs of ancient digs cut into the stone, lined with long burned out torches. They reach a glass bridge that crosses the ravine that leads down into what looks like a large room made of cracked stone brick, bellow them more mineshafts plunge vertically into the depths.

Inside the building looks almost intact, and here and there are signs of earlier expeditions. Abandoned crafting boxes, bookshelves, scattered notes, maps and burned out torches along side still burning torches.

In the corner a white coat lies on a chair, by chair I mean wooden stairs, and not far away the sound of someone digging can be heard.

They round the corner and see a strange scene to say the least. A villager is digging through a wall of glass with a wooden door, flipping through the pages of a book; while a small silver colored shelled insect crawls over the glass.

"Just give me a moment," Raven says and notches an arrow.

The arrow strikes the glass, barely missing the tiny target. The creature flinches, and then turns and leaps at Raven, who jumps back with a yelp when it tries to bite her. Whitewolf draws his sword and swings at it, and the creature jumps back and slides behind Pith, curling itself around his leg.

"Ah! Get it off, get it off," Pith yells.

The silverfish jumps off of him and lands on Jett's head who yelps and tries to pry the creature off.

Rift bends down and picks up the silverfish, who curls around its arm.

"He's harmless," the villager yells running out from behind his glass wall.

Rift leans down and picks the silverfish up, and saves the two some of their dignity.

As Pith calms down he reaches his hand out to touch the silverfish who doesn't complain.

"He's tame?" he says careful not to stick himself with the silverfish's needles.

"Oh very tame, Sticker, come over here,"

'Sticker' skitters to the villager and sits on his shoulder.

"Oh hello again Lily, Rift. Are these new friends?" he says noticing her standing at the back.

"Yep, we found them wandering at the end of the ravine,"

"Ok, I'm Ara, librarian,"

"Whitewolf, the two thousand and thirteenth, but you can just use the first part,"

"I'm Pith from Sea Stone,"

"I'm Jett,"

After the trio introduced themselves Lily begins to look around nervously.

"We should go back," Rift says in his usual voice.

"Yea, it's probably close to dawn by now and the exploding men will be coming down,"

"That's fine, we need the rest," Jett says, realizing how long they've been awake.

The band set back the way they came, looking over their shoulder for every bump.

"So why are you staying down here?"

"I was studying these ruins, this must have been the site of a city before any of the kingdoms were around. Well that and I can't walk out of here,"

"What, monsters deep underground? What a shock, hey squirt how about we blow through the tunnels to the exit?"

"I… don't think you want to stir that pack of wolves. Don't worry, we'll find a way to get you to the surface. Rift and I've been talking, and we've got a great plan, how do you feel about disusing as a creeper?"

Pith follows behind, but notices what sounds like a pick striking rock. Pith looks down the tunnel, and for the briefest moment he could have sworn he saw a man standing there. Wearing a simple aqua shirt and blue pants, and hefting a diamond pick axe. For a moment the thoughts of the white eyed ghost Herobrine passes through his mind, but the man turns to look at him with eyes to match his pants. The man stares at him for a moment, before running down the tunnel and disappearing.

* * *

**And here we are again. **

**I'm getting tired of this section being empty, so I'll be opening Q&A (he says as if he could prevent questions) both for me and for any characters in the story. Though this'll will be as much for my sake as it is for yours, oh and if someone asks a question on a chapter that's already been posted past this one I'll be happy to edit it in, so long as there aren't too many already on it. **


	7. Trading Tales

**Alright I'm back, sorry for the wait, I wonder how long it's been... oh. Well time flies pretty fast. Here's a new chapter and title, that makes up for it, right? Right...**

**So... this isn't going to be a very action packed chapter, but I've been getting this feeling that there's been too much action and not enough time for the characters to interact without constant danger**

* * *

"I'm telling you I saw something,"

"A man that looks like Herobrine but without the glowing eyes part?" says Ara.

"I wouldn't disbelieve that so quickly, there are strange things deep in the earth. And a disappearing miner is not the strangest," says Lily.

They reach Home Base, and Lily lets the group inside but tells them that she and Rift are going out to mine.

As they get settled in they break out the bags and start hauling out stuff. They each

-()-

Jett stretches out on the bed, for a second expecting the wooden ceiling of her home or the starry sky to greet her. Instead all above her is smooth stone, stone all around her.

Truthfully she would be exact when she got out of these caves, the walls of stone have started to feel more and more like a cage and the close spaces have started to get to her. She suspects that the others are thinking the same.

She looks to her companions and sees Whitewolf drooling through his mask, weird that he never takes that off. Pith's bed is empty though

She stands up, scratches her head and walks to the door, when she notices Pith leaning against the door snoring quietly.

Lily snickers and gently leads Pith aside to let herself out.

She walks to the next room where Lily had pointed out the kitchen. The large rectangular cave had been repurposed to be a kitchen, with grooves cut into the walls to make room for the furnaces and above several holes had been cut into the ceiling that led to the surface, letting out the smoke.

She walks to one of the crates in the corner and pulls out uncooked potatoes and throws them into the furnace. She notices the store is out of coal, and signs. She goes back to her room and returns with a stack of coal from Pith's bag.

She finds Lily standing at the furnace putting coal into the furnace from a pocket hidden in her toga.

"Oh glad to see your up, how'd you sleep?"

"Great actually!" she says, a little peppier with someone to talk to. "Better than I thought I would, I don't know how you manage to stay down here though."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily says in mock anger.

Jett laughs a little and just shakes her head.

"Not that it's a bad place, it's just strange to be without the sun, the moon and the sky. Besides doesn't it get lonely here?"

"I have Rift, and every once and a while we find villagers to cure or people, besides its fun down here,"

"Yea… where is Rift?"

"He should be outside, he likes staring at the ravine for hours,"

"Right," Raven leans against the wall waiting for the furnace to finish.

"You don't like him?"

"You do? I'm sorry for sounding crazy but… you know what, no I'm not crazy, I'm not the one who made friends with a monster,"

"He's a gentle soul, he couldn't hurt a fly. Besides he smells less than your friends,"

Jett sighs.

"Yea they do smell,"

Lily laughs, and after a moment Jett joins in.

-()-

Whitewolf stretches out and whips the saliva from his mask. He sits up and the first thing he sees is Pith standing infront of his bed with his eyes closed. Whitewolf yelps, but realizes his companion is sleep walking.

"Hey, hey bro wake up. You're really creepy when your asleep," Whitewolf says snapping his fingers infront of Pith. "I said wake up!"

Pith snaps awake, and jumps right into the low ceiling.

Pith rubs his head staring dumbly at thin air wondering what happened.

"Hmm wha tim's it?" he slurs.

"Time to eat, I think Jett has some goodies in her sack,"

"I don't think we should take things from our companions without her permission, just leave it,"

"Fine, I'll go see if there's something else to eat,"

Whitewolf leaves the room, and Pith eyes Jett's bag for a minute before scurrying over to it. He slides it open, and his face breaks into a wide smile.

"I don't think she'll notice a few of these missing,"

-()-

Pith steps through the doors of the library with a skip to his step as he chews on his third cookie.

"Morning," Ara says from behind the bookshelves.

"Good morning," says Pith happily chewing on his cookie.

"Sleep well?"

"I slept terribly, but the cookies help with that,"

"Oh can I have one?"

"Sure,"

Pith walks around the wall of bookshelves and finds Ara sitting at a stool reading a book. He hands the librarian a cookie, who takes it in three bites.

"So what are you reading?"

"Take a look,"

The book is newly made and marked 'Research notes of Ara the tinkerer'.

"Tinkerers?" Pith asks.

"Of course, did you think we call ourselves villagers?"

"I… did actually,"

The book is written in a maddening bad handwriting, to the point its hard to read. He makes enough out to read the heading on the first page.

"The Champions of Night and Day,"

"What's this?"

"Oh just a theory that I've been working on, it's fascinating really if you want to-,"

At that moment Whitewolf comes in carrying a bucket of milk, whistling.

"Hey I got the bucket," he says and plots it down between the three of them.

"Where did you get that?" Ara asks his train of thought derailed.

"Our friend gave it to us," he says.

Ara glances at Pith with a questioning glance. Pith can only shrug and dips his cookie in the bucket.

"So Ara Lily told me you were a zombie. How's that like?" Whitewolf asks.

"I… I don't remember much about it, well I remember being always being hungry," he's not the best liar.

Whitewolf notices but doesn't ask as the dips his second cookie in.

"I think I've lost my appetite any way," Ara says and drops his cookie in the bucket. "So you want to hear my theory?"

Ara almost beams as Pith mumbles out a yes through the cookie in his mouth.

"Right well you must have seen some of the pictures around here right? Well you know the stories about the Great Builders right?"

"Yea when the creepers did not creep, and the spiders did not bite. There were the champions of day and night. The Great Builders guarded the day, who fashioned mountains and lands tall,"

"But Herobrine hated the world they created, and his giants rose up from the deep. When the sun rose the builders were gone, and the sun burned the monsters and drove them into the Nether. There they turned into the Withers," Pith finishes.

"That's right but here I found all sorts of pictures, stories and books that almost make it seem that the Withers where revered at least before they became Withers. I've found all sorts of references to the Builders being called the 'Champions of the Day' so I guess they where their opposites,"

"Uh, I never heard that story," says Whitewolf.

"Sounds… wrong somehow," is all Pith says.

"Well I really am glad you guys brought something this tasty down here. Where'd you get the-,"

"Where the hell did my cookies go!?" comes a shout from outside. "Pith! Whitewolf! If I find you eating my food I swear I'll pin you to the walls."

Pith glances at Whitewolf, and shoves his cookies into his gloved hands before scurrying off. Jett comes in with a flushed face and sees Whitewolf holding a half dozen soggy cookies.

"Want one?" Whitewolf asks sincerely.

-()-

"I'm not forgiving you, no I don't care if you apologize,"

"It was just a cookie,"

"They were my cookies!"

"Fine fine I'll make you more when we find the coco, alright,"

"Though it really is nice down here," Jett says, swinging her legs over the edge of the ravine. "But I can't wait till I get back to the surface. I'd do anything to see a forest right now,"

Next to her sits Whitewolf with his legs also hanging over the edge. Pith sits back some distance refusing to get any closer.

"Me too, I can't wait to see the sky again,"

"What are you going to do with your share?" asks Whitewolf.

"Me? I'm going to show it to the king, there's no way he won't knight me on the spot for a quest like this,"

"And you guys call my people greedy, admit it you're just here for the glory and gold," Jett says snickering. "I bet you'll make your mom and dad proud."

Pith is quiet for a second, rubbing the blue triangle on the back of his hand.

"Yea, I bet they're proud," he says after a second.

"Something wrong?" asks Jett.

"No, it's nothing,"

"Well I know that once that treasure's in my hand everyone'll know about me. They'll be making statues of me back home," says Jett.

"What about you Whitewolf?" Pith asks.

"Hm? I'm going for the road trip, I couldn't care less what's at the end,"

"I was afraid you'd say that," Pith sighs.

They stay there watching the lava flow for a while, and Jett notices Rift walking toward the unlit ravine carrying a block of obsidian. Jett stands up and stretches her limbs.

"I'm going for a walk, I'll be right back,"

She walks to the unlit ravine of abandoned mineshafts, and finds the enderman stacking obsidian over the entrance.

"What are you doing?" she asks.

"Ensuring the passage is safe, no intruders can come through here,"

"Isn't obsidian a bit much though?" she asks.

Rift looks up and to one side as if he had seen something, and continues building his wall faster.

"Did you see something?"

Rift turns to look at her. She could almost swear for a moment that there was fear there.

"There was nothing to see," he says.

"Let me have a look before you seal it up," she says and walks around him.

He stiffens as she walks past, but says nothing.

She steps out onto the edge of the ravine and looks around, everything is just as quiet as they had left it.

"See? Nothing to be afraid of," she says and starts walking back.

As she turns to return to the inhabited ravine, the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. Her skin crawls as if a cold breeze had brushed against her, and a tingling sense at the back of her head makes her feel like something is watching her. Out of the corner of her sight, she could swear she spots dim but distinct lights emerging from the depths.

She turns and draws her bow but the light is gone.

"Did you see that?"

Rift pulls Jett behind the wall and finishes building it.

She doesn't look back as Rift seals the passage.

* * *

**I'm gonna be going back and redoing the earlier chapters because if I don't I'll have to dig out my eyes with a spoon so you might want to check back in a little while. Oh and free tip don't actually wake sleep walkers if their standing in front of your bed, it doesn't end well.**


End file.
